The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-13
THE INVENTION or PRINTING,


 R, k, Howker, in Harper's Magaa,ne for July Fifteen cities claim to he the birth place of printing, hat the haaor rests between Haarlem, Stgasbury, and Mains, The Dutch legend Is that some time about or previous to l440, one Laurcnt Jansxoon Roster, custoS or sexton ot church In Haarlcm, while in the llont, or Haarlem wood, cut letters on q becch- tlVe. which sug- gested to him wooden types, from which he aiterward dovciuprxi mriai types and that man in his employ. escaped with the secret to Mains, originated the art there lIaarlcm contains many portrait monuments of Roster, and belief in him Is an article of the Dutch faith but later investiga- tors claim that he k altogether a myth, made up, with much imag ina- ton and some rascality, of two llaar. lem citizens, neither of whom was printer. and of the "unknown printer" of much later days. The German story centcrs In John Gutcn- berg. of the family called Gensheisch taking his mothers name. In accord anee with German custom, because her family was dying out~~as to whom tl,efe Is a tleiiaite historical chain of evidence, including the re- cords of two law -suits. Nothing Is certainly known of his first thirty years. tle Is supposed 10 have been born about 1899, at Mains, whence his family were exilcl. going to Stras- burg, In 1889 he appears as \ dctend- ant in a law suit lrought in Stmsburg bS an heir ai one AndrrM nritsehcn, to compel Gutenberg to admit him to the secret and benefit of an art into which the deccasc,l hal bought by payment to Gutenberg This art seems to have been printing. and tho evidence in the suit shows that Guten- berg sent his servant to Driltehcn's house, immediately on his death. to have form" of -four pieces" lying In or about press" separated "hy turning two buttons" "so that no one might know what It Is" We do not know. for Gutenberg won the suit and kept the secret Different modern scholars construc ''it" to bc parts of the prcss, pages of type matrices, or a four part ty pe- mold, such as k known to have been used by early printers
 lt Is not known whether Gutenberg printed any books In Stlashurg tsome fragments of type Donatus being most piausibiy connected with him there), which caused German critic to declare that If Strashnrg is the cradle oi printing "lt Is n cradle with out baby" By HIS Gutenberg had removed to Mainz, for there K record ot his hiring money, and in lt60 he made a contract with John Faust, n money lender, to provide money for "papcr. Vellum, ink, wages. and other materials required" on half profits, which contract was the basis of tho second suit In thls suit. brought In l4t5, Faust. who hns been sadly con fused with that later Dr Faust, of Wittenbcrg. from whose wicked lern- ing grew the Faust legend, fore closed this mortgage, got possession of part oi Gntenberg's implements and stock, aud by help of Gutenberg 'sapprcDtice, Peter Schoefler, who afterward mar ried Faust's daughter Christians took mp the business ot printing. There is q legend that this Sehoetler. and not Gutenberg invented the type.inold, but recent investigators show that this invention was peculiarly Guten- berg's. Gutenberg, who started new printing office after the @eparaii by help of money from Conrad IIumcry, physician and town clerk, printed two editions of the bible. He printed also All edition oi the "DoHstus." Aey- eral Letters of Indulgence" (tbe carl fest job work, A broadside Calendar of l5t7, Cathoiicon of liGO, and many other things. He was alive in l4G5. when Archbishop Adolph made him one of the gentlemen This court, and was dead in i4Gs. for in that year Conrad Humery had secceeded to his effects.